Notation
Note: The tunes below are recorded in what
is called “abc notation.” They
can easily be converted to standard musical notation via highlighting with
your cursor starting at “X:1” through to the end of the abc’s, then
“cutting-and-pasting” the highlighted notation into one of the many abc
conversion programs available, or at concertina.net’s incredibly handy “ABC
Convert-A-Matic” at

**Please note that the abc’s in the Fiddler’s
Companion work fine in most abc conversion programs. For example, I use
abc2win and abcNavigator 2 with no problems whatsoever with direct
cut-and-pasting. However, due to an anomaly of the html, pasting the abc’s
into the concertina.net converter results in double-spacing. For
concertina.net’s conversion program to work you must remove the spaces
between all the lines of abc notation after pasting, so that they are
single-spaced, with no intervening blank lines. This being done, the F/C
abc’s will convert to standard notation nicely. Or, get a copy of
abcNavigator 2 – its well worth it.[AK]

BOIL THE(M)
CABBAGE DOWN [1]. AKA - "Bile Them
Cabbage Down." Old‑Time, Breakdown. A Major. Standard tuning. AB
(Phillips): AABB (Devil's Box). Known now as a beginner's tune especially
useful for practicing the basic "Georgia Shuffle" rhythm,
"Boil/Bile the Cabbage Down" has been widely known and played. The
famous Georgia
fiddler Clayton McMichen created a virtuoso version and featured it in competitions
at major contests; Fiddlin' Arthur Smith also played it on his radio broadcasts
(Frank Maloy). North Georgia fiddler Lowe Stokes played
a version he called “Somebody’s
Rockin’ My Sugar Lump.” The Devil's
Box, vol. 23, #1, Spring 1989. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes, vol. 1), 1994; pg. 33. Fretless 101, "The Campbell
Family: Champion Fiddlers." Rounder Records, Benton
Flippen.

BOLD CAPTAIN FRENEY. Irish, Air or March (4/4 time). D Mixolydian (Joyce): A
Major/Mixolydian (Stanford/Petrie). Standard. One part. "There is an air
with this name in one of the Pigot MSS., now in my keeping; the same setting is
in the Stanford‑Petrie Collection (No. 734), copied from the Pigot MS.;
and I find still the same setting in other collections. But in the Kilkenny
Archaeological Journal for 1856‑57, p. 59, there is given a totally
different air, with the whole song about Captain Freney. This air was taken
down early in the last century by the organist of St. Canice's Cathederal,
Kilkenny, from the singing of an old servant of a very old lady, a relative of
the late Mr. Prim of Kilkenny (a distinguished man, one of the founders of the
Kilkenny Archaeological Society). This lady often conversed with Mr. Prim about
Freney, and was able to sing the song. Putting all these circumstances
together, we may, I suppose, conclude that the air given below, copied from the
Journal, is the original 'Bold Captain Freney'. The song contains ten verses,
of which it will be sufficient to give five here. Captain Freney was a noted
highwayman of the countyWaterford
in the 18th century, who is still well remembered in Munster
folklore. In the end he was pardoned, and spent the evening of his life
peacefully, as tide‑waiter in New Ross. In this situation 'he always
maintained a character for integrity and propriety,' a fovourite with all, both
gentle and simple. His full history by Mr. Prim will be found in the above‑named
volume, pp. 52 to 61. I have a printed copy of his life, written by
himself" (Joyce). Source for notated version: “From Mr. Pigot’s MS”
[Stanford/Petrie]. Joyce (Old Irish Folk
Music and Songs), 1909; No. 418, pgs. 228‑229. Stanford/Petrie (Complete Collection), 1905; No. 734, pg.
184.

BON-ACCORD.Scottish, Waltz. C Major.
Standard tuning. One part. A modern waltz composed by North East Scottish
fiddler Bert Murray (b. 1913). The title refers to the city of Aberdeen,
Scotland.
Martin (Traditional Scottish Fiddling),
2002; pg. 40. Murray (The Bon Accord Collection).

BON TON SCHOTTISCHE. American, Schottische (cut time, "with a 6/8 feel"). A
Mixolydian. Standard tuning. AABB. ‘Bon Ton’ means the ‘fashionable elite’, the
high society.There was a French
fashion magazine in the last century named the Bon Ton, and a New
York City concert saloon also sported the name. Brooks
McNamara, in his book The New York
Concert Saloon: The Devil’s Own Nights (2002, pg. 42), records:

***

At the Bon Ton in 1864 there apparently was only a piano for entertain-

Ment, and customers who sang. “The man from LakeLomand,” noted the

Clipper (a periodical of the era), “after warbling the air of a tune to
himself,

volunteered to sing the praises of ‘Bonnie Annie, blithe and gay’; and
as

he warmed to his work, by his pantomimic motions it is evident he

imagined himself once more in the land of the shamrocks [sic] ganging
aw’

BONAPARTE CROSSING THE
ALPS. AKA and see AKA and see “Battle of Waterloo,” "Bonaparte Crossing the Rhine [2]"
(Irish), “Bonaparte Crossing
the Rockies,” “Bonaparte’s March [3],”
"Bonaparte's Retreat" (Pa.), “Napoleon Crossing the Alps [1],”
"Oro, Welcome Home," "The Diamond," "Peter Gray" (Pa.). Irish
(originally), Canadian, American; March. Canada,
Prince Edward Island. A Dorian.
Standard tuning. AABB. "The wide diffusion, extensive ramification and
probable great age of this Irish air have been discussed already in the notes
to other versions in this collection (see notes for 'Bonaparte's Retreat'). The
present version must also represent a fairly antique development of the tune;
it has a strongly impressed character of its own, and may readily be traced in
Irish tradition. Though some of its variants serve for songs or dances, most of
them have the same strong, martial swing as the one given here. Petrie
unhesitatingly calls it 'an ancient clan march' (see Petrie, pp. 251, 356),
although he does not assign it to any particular Irish sept. Joyce, on the
other hand, declares it to ba a wedding march, or 'hauling‑home' song‑tune,
since it was used in his boyhood in CountyLimerick to accompany the progress
of a newly‑married couple home from church (see Joyce 1909, pp. 130,
131). Its frequently occurring Irish name, "Oro, 'Se do bheatha a'bhaile!'
(Oro, Welcome Home), and two or three lines of verse quoted by Joyce, would be
convincing were we not aware by this time of its protean variety of form and
multiplicity of functions in the tradition. As a matter of fact, this version,
like the ones already cited, goes under other names in Ireland
beside 'Welcome Home'; while these words also befin the refrain to a Gaelic
Jacobite song sometimes sung to it. We can only conclude that the statements of
Petrie and Joyce were both partially correct: the tune, like other old and well
known ones in our tradition, has been used for a number of purposes. In south
western Pennsylvania this version
is definitely a marching tune. Another local set is Bayard Coll. No. 352, from GreeneCounty. When the volunteers from the
communities of Pine Bank and Jollytown, in that county, went to camp at the
time of the Civil War, they marched to the stately music of this tune as played
by a 'martial band' (drums and fifes) made up of local folk musicians. Although
this 'Welcome Home' form of the air is strongly individualized, it cannot be
separated from the other sets, discussed under our Nos. 44‑48, to which
its variants continually show resemblance and relation. Intermediate or
transitional forms have been recorded, some of which were listed under Nos. 44‑48;
others are referred below...A still more specialized march form of the 'Welcome
Home' version goes in Irish tradition by the name of '(Fare Thee Well) Sweet
Killaloe'. Variants are found in Joyce 1909, No. 824 and O'Neill's Irish Music, No. 100. A greatly simplified dance‑tune
form of this 'Killaloe' version is also current in western Pennsylvania
under ('floating') titles of 'Jennie Put the Kettle On' and 'Nigger in the
Woodpile'. Sets are in Bayard Coll., Nos. 21, 64. The American Veteran Fifer also has a variant, No. 122"
(Bayard, 1944)."/ Bayard (1981) cites it as a member of the
"Lazarus" tune family (identified in part by a subtonic cadence in
the 1st and 3rd tune lines, with a tonic cadence in the 2nd and 4th tune lines;
which is a feature of medieval music, he says).

***

Perlman (1996) remarks that the tune
was played by the regionally famous PEI
fiddler Lem Jay on New Years’ Eve over Charlottetown (PEI) radio during the
1930's. Source for notated version: Johnny Morrissey (1913-1994, Newtown Cross
and VernonRiver,
Queens County, Prince Edward Island)
[Perlman].

BONAPARTE
CROSSING THE RHINE
[1]. AKA and see "Bonaparte's
Retreat," "Bruce's March,"
"Caledonian March,"
"The Freemanson's March,"
"Napoleon Crossing the Rhine,"
"Ranahan's March [1],""Sherman's March (to the Sea),"
"The Star of Bethlehem" “St.
Patrick’s March.” Old‑Time, March (cut time). D Major. Standard or ADae
tunings. AB (Barnes): AAB (Phillips/1995): AABB (most versions). The first part
of the tune shows up in several melodies from Ireland,
Scotland and England;
these variants include the Irish “Centenary
March” and “An Comhra Donn,” and the
Scottish “Caledonian March.”
Barry Callaghan (2007) says the core tune was current as a military march in
the Peninsular War, and probably earlier, although he cites no source for this
assertion. Samuel Bayard (1944) was familiar with “Bonaparte Crossing the
Rhine” as a common march tune in his primary collecting area of western
Pennsylvania, and one which circulated under a variety of names including (in
Fayette County) "Bruce's March"
and (in Greene County) "The Star of
Bethlehem." A Pennsylvania
bandmaster gave Bayard the name "Ranahan's
March," which he said commemorated a local bandmaster. As with several
of the other 'Bonaparte'-titled tunes it is sometimes confused with similar
names; for example, Bayard once heard it played by a New
Jersey fiddler who gave it the ubiquitous name of"Bonaparte's Retreat."Fiddler Mack Snodderly played a slow,
dirge-like version of the tune and called it "Dying on the Field of
Battle.”

***

"The
Greene County title (i.e. "Star of Bethlehem") suggests that the air
may formerly have been sung to a once popular religious piece of the same name,
beginning:

***

When marshaled on the nightly plain

The glimmering host illumed the sky.

***

But
this hymn is now usually associated with the air 'Ye Banks and Braes of Bonnie
Doon' in southwestern Pennsylvania
and elsewhere. And there is no other indication thus far that (this tune) has
been anything but an instrumental march tune in the Middle Atlantic area. We
know, however, that it was used as a hymn melody in the South. Its currency in
southern tradition is attested by two distinct versions used with a couple of
the favorite pieces in the shapenote hymn books of fa-so-la singers. One of
these, a close variant of (this tune) appears in Swan, The New Harp of Columbia(1867), No. 148 as 'France';
the other, representing a quite different‑‑somewhat more vocal‑‑development
of the air, is entitled 'Family Bible' in Walker, The Southern Harmony (1835), No. 20, and Cayee, The Good Old Songs (1913), No. 217. This
second version is listed by Professor George Pullen Jackson among the eighty
most popular tunes in the fa-so-la song books: see 'White Spirituals in the
Southern Uplands', p. 146, tune No. 63 and references. Other Pennsylvania
sets are Bayard Coll., Nos. 35, 50. A variant called 'Caledonian March' appears
in Howe's School for the Violin, pg.
17. Although the air sounds Scottish, it has not yet been traced outside this
country (ed.—“Caledonian March” does appear in Kerr’s Merry Melodies and
McDonald’s Gesto Collection. Did Bayard think that the Scots picked it
up from Howe?). A tune bearing some resemblance to it occurs, in Smith, The Scottish Minstrel, IV, 12, 'The
Pride of the Broomlands'; and another, still closer, occasionally appears in
the commercial fiddle‑tune books as 'Lochnagar': e.g., Cole, p. 124; White's Excelsier Coll., p. 70; Kerr,
No. 214" (Bayard, 1944).

BONAPARTE
CROSSING THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. AKA and see “Battle of Waterloo,” “Bonaparte Crossing the Alps,” "Bonaparte Crossing the Rhine [2],”
“Bonaparte’s March [3],” "Caledonia March." Old‑Time,
Breakdown. A Aeolian (Am). Standard tuning. AABB. The title is perhaps comes
from a garbled transmission of "Bonaparte Crossing the Rhine," or
perhaps a deliberate Americanism. There's a story about this tune in Allen H.
Eaton, Handicrafts of the Southern Highlands (1937,
repr. Dover 1973).Tunes at a Knoxville
fiddlers' convention included "Napolean Crossing the Rocky
Mountains, which several contestants chose to render.This tune seemed to be a particular favorite
and one which it was stated was local to that part of Tennessee.This, however, proved to be an error, for it
was found to be also popular in parts of North Carolina
and in Kentucky.Dean WIlliam Jesse Baird of BereaCollege heard it in PineMountain and tells this story about
it:'Uncle John' delighted in playing
for visitors and sooner or later he would say, 'Now, I want to play you my
favorite; I calls hit Napolean Crossing the Rocky Mountains.'One day a teacher at PineMountain said, 'Uncle John, you mean
Napolean Crossing the Alps'.'I don't know, maybe I do,' he replied.Sometime later he was playing for a visitor and at his usual
point announced, 'Now I want to play you my favorite; I calls hit Napolean
Crossing the Rockies.Some folks say Napolean never crossed the Rockies,
that he crossed the Alps, but historians differ on that
point'". Brody (Fiddler’s Fakebook),
1983; pg. 51. Kicking Mule 209, Bob Carlin‑
"Melodic Clawhammer Banjo."

BONAPARTE’S CHARGE.Old-Time, Breakdown. D Major. Bruce Greene told Jim Taylor that the title
was inspired by an incident at the Battle of Waterloo. The story goes that when
it became apparent the French were not to win the field that day, Napoleon
turned to his Chief Musician and ordered the signal for retreat to be played.Since retreat was seldom if ever an
occurrence in the Emperor’s army, the man was initially at a loss as there was
not repertoire for ‘retreat’.Frustrated, but resourceful, the man turned to his commander and said
that although he had no retreat to play he could ‘play a charge to wake the
dead!’ PearlMae Muisc 004-2, Jim Taylor – “The
Civil War Collection” (1996).

BONAPART(E)'S
EXPEDITION.
English, March or Country Dance Tune (2/4 time). England,
Northumburland. G Major. Standard tuning. AB. Sounds like it was at one time a
song tune. Peacock (Peacock’s Tunes),
c. 1805/1980; No. 18, pg. 6.

BONAPARTE’S
GRAND MARCH. AKA and see “Bonaparte’s March
[2].” Irish (?), March (4/4 time). D Major. Standard tuning. ABC. O’Neill
(1922) says: “In the heyday of Bonaparte's renown, early in the
nineteenth century, many song, marches, hornpipes etc were named in his honor
in Ireland.
Most of the tunes, being traditional, retain their popularity. It is not claimed
that "Bonaparte's Grand March" is an Irish composition. In fact we
have no information concerning its history or origin, but there can be no
question as to its circulation and popularity in Ireland
in former times. Its rescue from the oblivion of faded manuscript to the
publicity of the printed page may endow this spirited march with renewed
vitality.” Source for notated
version: Chicago police Sergeant
James O’Neill, originally from CountyDown [O’Neill]. O’Neill (Waifs and Strays of Gaelic Melody), 1922;
No. 59.

BONAPARTE'S MARCH [1]. English, March. D Major. Standard tuning. AABB. William Litten’s
collection was made at sea during the years 1800-1802. Litten was apparently a
ship’s fiddler for a British vessel of the East India Fleet, although his
nationality is not known. His manuscript collection ended up on Martha’s
Vineyard, Massachusetts, where it
had been brought by a seaman named Allan Coffin, of Edgartown, who may have
been a shipmate of Litten’s. Huntington (William
Litten's), 1977; pg. 38.

BONAPARTE'S RETREAT [1].
AKA – “Napoleon’s Retreat.” Old‑Time, Texas Style; March, Reel. USA;
Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, North Carolina, Kentucky, northeast
Alabama, Mississippi, southwestern Va., West Virginia, Pennsylvania. D Major
(most versions, though one version in A Major was collected from Mississippi
fiddler John Hatcher in 1939). DDad (W.H. Stepp, Absie Morrison), EBee (Henry
Reed), or DDae tunings. ABB: ABB’CC’BB’ (Beisswenger & McCann). A classic
old‑time quasi-programmatic American fiddle piece that is generally
played in a slow march tempo at the beginning and becomes increasingly more
quick by the end of the tune, meant to denote a retreating army. Versions very
widely from region to region, some binary and some with multiple parts. One
folklore anecdote regarding this melody has it that the original "Bonaparte's
Retreat" was improvised on the bagpipe by a member of a Scots regiment
that fought at Waterloo, in remembrance of the occasion. The American collector
Ira Ford (1940) (who seemed to manufacture his notions of tune origins from
fancy and supposition, or else elaborately embellished snatches of tune-lore)
declared the melody to be an "old American traditional novelty, which had
its origin after the Napoleonic Wars." He notes that some fiddlers (whom
he presumably witnessed) produced effects in performance by drumming the
strings with the back of the bow and "other manipulations simulating
musket fire and the general din of combat. Pizzicato represents the boom of the
cannon, while the movement beginning with Allegro is played with a continuous
bow, to imitate bagpipes or fife." The programmatic associations of many
older fiddlers are also wide-spread. Arkansas fiddler Absie Morrison
(1876-1964) maintained the melody had French and bagpipe connotations (as told
to Judith McCulloh—see “Uncle Absie Morrison’s Historical Tunes”, Mid-America
Folklore 3, Winter 1975, pgs. 95-104)…”Now that’s bagpipe music on the
fiddle…That was when (Bonaparte) had to give back, had to give up the
battle…This in what’s called minor key, now…It’s French music.”

***

In
fact, the tune has Irish origins, though Burman-Hall could only find printed
variants in sources from that island from 1872 onward. "It has been
collected in a variety of functions, including an Irish lullaby and a 'Frog
Dance' from the Isle of Man" (Linda Burman‑Hall. "Southern
American Folk Fiddle Styles," Ethnomusicology,
vol. 19, #1, Jan. 1975). Samuel Bayard (1944) concurs with assigning Irish
origins for "Bonaparte's Retreat," and notes that it is an ancient
Irish march tune with quite a varied traditional history. The 'ancient march'
is called "The Eagle's Whistle [1]"
or "The Eagle's Tune," which P.W. Joyce (1909) said was formerly the
marching tune of the once powerful O'Donovan family. Still, states Bayard, the
evidence of Irish collections indicates that it has long been common property
of traditional fiddlers and pipers, and has undergone considerable alteration
at various hands. Related American old-time melodies include “Bumble Bee in the Pumpkin
Patch” and the northeast U.S. song “ Bony on the Isle of St. Helena.”

***

Bayard's
primary scope of collecting was in western Pennsylvania in the mid-20th
century, where he found the tune still current in fiddle repertoire, though he
remarked on its popularity in various parts of the South. His Pennsylvania
version has a somewhat simpler melodic outline than most of the other recorded
American sets, and, although he notes that these sets vary considerably‑‑even
in the number of parts which a version may contain‑‑he finds they
are clearly cognate, and all show resemblance’s and common traits indicating
derivation from the "The Eagle's Whistle."In Southwestern Pennsylvania the march origins were lost and
instead "sets of the tune have been recast into the form‑‑and
given title‑‑ of 'The Old Man and Old Woman Quarrelin' (Scoldin',
Fightin'),' and thus present an alternation of slow and quick parts. Other Pennsylvania
sets are Bayard Coll., Nos. 81, 84,
252; and see notes to ('Old Man and Old Woman
Scoldin'). These refashioned 'Old Man and Woman' sets differ somewhat among
themselves, indicating that they have been traditional in their altered form
for some time; but whether they assumed this form before their importation into
America, or whether the alteration took place here, with an older tune of the
type of 'Old Man and Old Woman Scoldin'' as model, is uncertain. F.P. Provance
stated that the fifer from whom he learned this tune played it as a retreat in
Civil War days" (Bayard, 1944).

***

According
to Blue Ridge Mountain local history the tune was known in the Civil War era.
Geoffrey Cantrell, writing in the Asheville
Citizen-Times of Feb., 23, 2000 relates the story of the execution of three
men by the Confederate Home Guard on April 10th, 1865, the day after
Lee’s surrender at Appomattox. Courthouse.That news would not have been known to them, given the difficulty with
communications at that time. It is documented that Henry Grooms, his brother
George and his brother-in-law Mitchell Caldwell, all of north Haywood County,
North Carolina, were taken prisoner by the Guard under the command of one
Captain Albert Teague—no one knows why, but the area had been ravaged by
scalawags and bushwackers, and the populace had suffered numerous raids of
family farms by Union troops hunting provisions. One theory is that the men
were accused of being Confederate deserters who, perhaps knowing the war was nearly
over, had aided the Union cause in some way. There was much back-and-forth
guerilla warfare, however, and the village of Waynesville had been burned two
months earlier (by Unionists), and the citizenry was beleaguered and anxious.
Caldwell and the Grooms brothers were captured in the Big Creek section of
Haywood County, close to the Tennessee border. Cantrell writes: “The group
traveled toward Cataloochee Valley and Henry Grooms, clutching his fiddle and
bow, was asked by his captors to play a tune. Realizing he was performing for
his own firing squad Grooms struck up Bonaparte’s
Retreat,” his favorite tune. When he finished the three men were lined up
against an oak tree and shot, the bodies left where they fell. Henry’s wife
gathered the bodies and buried them in a single grave in the family plot at
Sutton Cemetery No. 1 in the Mount Sterling community, the plain headstone
reading only “Murdered.” The original source for the story is George A. Miller,
in his book Cemeteries and Family Graveyards in Haywood County, N.C.

***

The
Kentucky Encyclopedia gives another
story which mentions “Bonaparte’s Retreat” in connection with an execution. It
seems that a Colonel Solomon P. Sharp, a former attorney general of Kentucky,
was murdered in the middle of a September night in 1825 by an unidentified
assailant who stabbed him in his chest. Sharp had political enemies, all of
whom had alibis, but who had circulated rumors that he had seduced one Ann Cook
of Bowling Green, fathering her illegitimate child in 1820. Suspicion soon
shifted to Ann’s husband, Jereboam Beauchamp, who married her after the birth
of the supposed love-child but who was infuriated at the circulating handbills
containing the rumor. Beauchamp was dully arrested, tried in Frankfort in May,
1826, found guilty and was sentenced to death by hanging. Ann could not bear to
be parted from him and somehow gained permission from the jailer to stay with
him in his jail cell. The couple tried unsuccessfully to commit suicide by
taking an overdose of laudanum, but were still permitted to share the cell.
Another suicide attempt with a smuggled knife was made on the day of the
execution, with somewhat better results.Ann, mortally wounded, was taken to the jailers house for treatment, but
Beauchamp was hustled to the gallows lest he die from his wounds before the
sentence was carried out. He proved too weak from his wounds to stand and had
to be supported, but he was presumably able to hear the strains of “Bonaparte’s
Retreat” played before he made the leap, as he had previously requested. Ann
and Jereboam were buried in a joint grave in Bloomfield, Kenctucky, graced by a
tombstone engraved with an eight-stanza poem written by Ann.

***

The
tune was cited (by Mattie Stanfield in her book Sourwood Tonic and Sassafras Tea) as having been played by Etowah
County, Alabama, fiddler George Cole at the turn of the century (Cauthen,
1990). Musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph recorded the tune from Ozark
Mountain fiddlers for the Library of Congress in the early 1940's. Ed Haley (1883‑1951)
of Ashland, eastern Ky., played the tune so skillfully that "one old‑timer,
after hearing Haley play ("Bonaparte's Retreat") declared that 'if two
armies could come together and hear him play that tune, they'd kill themselves
in piles" (Wolfe, 1982).Haley
toured regionally in Kentucky and West VirginiaIt was “Bonaparte’s Retreat” that was the first tune Braxton
County fiddler Melvin Wine (1909-1999) learned at the age of nine. His father,
Bob, played the fiddle and young Melvin practiced when the elder Wine was out
cutting timber or working as a farmhand for neighbors. He finally worked up the
nerve to play for his father, and it proved a successful entrée, for afterwards
which Bob taught him tunes he had learned from his own father, Nels, and
Grandfather “Smithy” (Mountains of Music,
John Lilly ed., 1999, pg. 8).

***

Another
Kentucky fiddler, William H. Stepp (of Leakeville, Magoffin County, whose name,
Kerry Blech points out, is sometimes erroneously given as W.M. Stepp, from a
misreading of the old abbreviation Wm., for William), appears to be the source
(through his 1937 Library of Congress field recording) for many revival
fiddlers' versions. Stepp’s version of the tune was transcribed by Ruth
Crawford Seegar and was included in John and Alan Lomax’s volume Our Singing Country (1941). The
Crawford/Seegar version has been credited as the source Aaron Copland adapted
for a main theme in his orchestral suite “Hoedown.” {Lynn “Chirps” Smith says
he has even heard people refer to the tune as “Copland’s Fancy” in recent
times!}. North Georgia fiddler A.A. Gray (1881-1939) won third place honors
playing the tune at the 1920 (10th) Annual Georgia Old Time Fiddler's
Association state contest in Atlanta, and four years later recorded it as a
solo fiddle tune for OKeh Records (the earliest sound recording of the tune).
Other early recordings were by Gid Tanner & His Skillet Lickers (1929) and
the Arthur Smith Trio (1936).

BONAPARTE'S RETREAT
[4] (Brisead Bonapart). Irish, Set Dance. E Minor. Standard
tuning. AAB (O'Neill/1850 & 1001): AABB (O'Neill/Krassen). Francis O'Neill
concludes that the tune was widely known in Munster but not outside the
province, from the contact he had with Irish musicians in Chicago. However, it
appears that his Irish Music Club was primarily made up of musicians from the
south of Ireland, and that he had relatively few contacts with musicians from
other regions. O'Neill (Krassen), 1976; pg. 221. Cotter (Traditional Irish Tin Whistle Tutor), 1989; 86. O'Neill (Music of Ireland: 1850 Melodies),
1903/1979; No. 1789, pg. 335. O'Neill (Dance
Music of Ireland: 1001 Gems), 1986; No. 980, pg. 168 (the tune is
mistakenly printed a step lower {placing it in an unplayable D Major}). Island ILPS9432, The Chieftains - "Bonaparte's
Retreat" (1976).

X:1

T:Bonaparte’s Retreat [4]

M:C

L:1/8

R:Set Dance

S:O’Neill – Dance Music of Ireland: 1001 Gems (1907), No. 980

Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion

K:Dmix

DC|A,DDE FEDC|DEGA c3d|edcB
cABG|AGFE FDEC|

A,DDE FEDC|DEGA cBcd|edcA
GECD|E2D2D2:|

|:AB|cBcB cdcA|dcde dfed|cBcd
cABG|AGFE FDEC|

cBcB cdcA|dcde defg|afge fdec|Adce
d2 de|fefg fedf|ecef edcA|

dfed cABG|AGFE FDEC|A,DDE FEDC|DEGA
c3d|edcB cABG|

AGFE FDEC|A,DDE FEDC|DEGA cBcd|edcA
GECD|E2D2D2:|

BONAPARTE'S RETREAT
[5]. AKA and see "Bonaparte Crossing the Rhine [1],"
"Bonaparte Crossing the
Rocky Mountains," etc. Old‑Time, March. A Minor. Standard
tuning. AABB. "This very widespread march and dance melody is generally
known in western Pennsylvania by the name given it here, when it has a name at
all. Versions may likewise bear the title "Bonaparte (Napoleon) Crossing
the Rhine (Alps)," or some similar name. That these Napoleon/Bonaparte
titles are distinctly of the 'floating' sort may be ascertained by examining
("Bonaparte's Retreat" versions, "The Blackbird," "Bonaparte Crossing the Alps,"
"Ranahan's March [1],"
"Freemason's March") and
the airs cited in the notes to them. In all probability the versions of (this
version) were imported and diffused by fiddlers of Irish and Scottish
extraction. Such a fine tune would need nothing beyond introduction to make it
popular in this country among players of any nationality. Other Pennsylvania
sets are Bayard Coll., Nos. 29, 59, 355. Printed versions include Linscott, p.
69; O'Neill's Irish Music, No. 101;
O'Neill, Music of Ireland, No. 1824;
Howe's School for the Violin, p. 23,
Scanlon, p. 61.It has long been
recognized that 'Guilderoy' is an alternately vocal and instrumental setting of
the protean Lazarus air, one of the half‑dozen or so most extensively
used melodies in our entire British‑American folk tune repertory (see
JWFSS, I, 142). What has not been generally recognized is the fact that (this
version of) 'Bonaparte's Retreat' is likewise a good and distinctive setting of
the same original melody‑‑cast is a different mode, and with a few
alterations in the melodic line, but unmistakably the same. Versions of Lazarus
are used to fulfil almost every function which can be required of a folk air in
our tradition. They are mire universally known in vocal than instrumental
forms, but in this case an excellent march version has been evolved. Probably
the musicians who now play both versions of this air do not identify them as
cognates‑‑the editor has never observed any evidence of such
identification at any rate. Yet the contrast between the stately sweep of
'Bonaparte's Retreat' and the jaunty carriage of 'Guilderoy' gives us
considerable insight into the ways in which some members of the musical folk
have been able in the past to re‑create and re‑interpret the
melodies of their inherited stock of music‑‑and to enrich their
tradition, withal, in its content and scope. Nothing more clearly reveals this
power of folk artists to revitalize their culture by variation and re‑creation
than the different forms of some widespread traditional air; and many other
examples of such artistic activity may be found among the multitudinous sets of
the Lazarus melody" (Bayard). Source for notated version: "Played by
Irvin Yaugher, Jr., Mt. Independence, Pennsylvania, October 19, 1943. Learned
from his great‑uncle" (Bayard). Bayard (Hill Country Tunes), 1944; No. 86.

BONAPARTE'S RETURN. Old-Time. Recorded by Herbert Halpert for the Library of Congress
(2743-B-4) in 1939 from the playing of Franklin County, Virginia, fiddler H.L.
Maxey.

BONAPARTE’S RETURN FROM MOSCOW. American, March. A Minor. Standard tuning. AABB. From the
music manuscripts of Setauket, Long Island, painter and fiddler William Sidney
Mount, on a page dated 1840.

X:1

T:Bonaparte’s Return from Moscow

M:C

L:1/8

S:William Sidney Mount manuscripts; page dated 1840.

Z:AK/Fiddler’s
Companion

K:Amin

A>AA>A AcBA | ^G>GG>G GBAG | A>AA>A AcBA |
^G>e e>G A2 z2 :|

|:
c>cc>c cedc | B>BB>B BdcB | A>AA>A AcBA | ^G>e e>G A2
z2 :|

BONAR BRIDGE, THE. Scottish, Slow Air (whole time). G Major.
Standard tuning. AAB. A note in the Fourth Collection (1800) says
“Ancient Gaelic.” Bonar Bridge is a village on the banks of the estuary called
the Kyle of Sutherland in the County of Sutherland. Bonar Bridge itself,
spanning Dornoch Firth, was built in 1812 to replace the former ferry, and is
perhaps the reason it was included in the 2nd edition of the Gow
volume. Gow (Fourth Collection of Strathspey Dances), 2nd
edition, originally 1800; pg. 38.

BONDY SPECIAL. Old-Time, Breakdown. In the repertoire of
Barnesville, Ohio, fiddler John W. Hutchison (1915-1979), who had many of his
tunes from ‘old man’ Bondy, an Irishman. The tune was recorded by the Hutchison
Brothers bluegrass band, which consisted of Hutchison’s sons and fiddler Greg
Dearth.

BONEY IN THE DUMPS.English, Jig. B Flat Major. Standard tuning. AABB. While the title
probably refers to Napoleon Bonaparte (Old Boney), who at the time of Cahusac’s
publication was beset by the rebellion in Spain and the disintegration of his
alliance with Austria. It is possible that the title derives from the slang
term ‘Boney Dumps’; ‘boney’ was the name for coal that had more rock than coal
in it, and was once sorted and discarded. One had to be poor indeed to go down
to the boney dumps to try to pick out usable coal to bring home. Cahusac (Annual
Collection of Twenty Four Favorite Country Dances for 1809), 1809; No. 24.

X:1

T:Boney in the Dumps

M:6/8

L:1/8

R:Jig

B:WM Cahusac – Annual Collection
of Twenty Four Favorite Country Dances for the Year 1809, No. 24 (London)

BON(E)FIRE [1], THE. AKA ‑ "Tein'‑aigheir
air gach beann dhiubh." Scottish, Strathspey. G Minor. Standard tuning.
AAB. This Jacobite oriented tune "was occasioned by the bonfires raised on
all the surrounding hills, upon the late General Fraser of Lovat's (the family
chief's Gaelic patronymic was MacShimi) election for the County of Inverness,
even before his estate was restored to him (forfeited in 1745). “The Bonfire”
makes a charming medley with ("The
Scolding Wives of Abertarff)" (Fraser). Other Jacobite Fraser family
tunes are "Lovat's Restoration,"
"Lord Lovat Beheaded,"
"Lord Lovat's Welcome."Alburger (Scottish Fiddlers and Their Music), 1983; Ex. 96, pg. 162. Fraser (The Airs and Melodies Peculiar to the
Highlands of Scotland and the Isles), 1874; No. 64, pg. 22. Stewart-Robertson (The Athole Collection), 1884;
pg. 193.